A mixed bag of tournaments took place in June. The month was dominated by IEM Summer and the conclusion of the BLAST Spring Series in the seasonal final, which saw Gambit extend their lead at No.1 after bringing home both titles before the second CIS Regional Major Ranking, StarLadder CIS RMR, had Natus Vincere edging out their biggest rival in the title decider.

Outside of the competition at the very top, ESEA Premier Season 37 came to a close with Sinners clinching their second international title on the European side of things, and TeamOne joined them in the ESL Pro League Season 14 team list on the back of their successful run over in North America. Meanwhile, Extra Salt and Complexity didn’t enter July empty-handed either after coming out on top of DreamHack Open and Spring Sweet Spring 3 at the end of June, respectively.

NIP have made up the most places in the top 15

That leaves us with a plethora of smaller changes all throughout the top 15 and some familiar standings at the pinnacle as we flip the calendar, with Gambit, Natus Vincere, G2, and Heroic remaining in the best quartet, and sets us up for a return to LAN action at the looming IEM Cologne, where the challengers will attempt to shift the status quo.

Here’s a summary of our ranking for new readers:

Our team ranking is based on teams’ achievements over the past year (with severe decay in points throughout each month), recent form over the last two months, and performance in recent events in the last 3 months.

Each team is required to have a three-man core in order to retain their points. Due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, online results, which previously had a minimal effect, now carry more weight as they are also included in the ‘Achievements’ and ‘Recent Events’ sub-categories.

Below is the current top 30 table as of July 5, which goes more in-depth into how the points are distributed — or you can check our special page, where you will be able to find the latest, weekly version of our ranking. You can see the lineup for each team by hovering over their name in the table.

Please note that the +/- gain on this table differs from our weekly rankings page, and it is related to the ranking update of June 7.

A chance to stand out from the crowd

Though the last month hasn’t brought much in the way of big leaps in the upper half of the ladder, it has certainly tightened the competition all around the top ten. Ten teams are now separated by just over 70 points in total between the sixth position currently occupied by Virtus.pro (314) and Liquid in 15th place (242), when the difference among the same positions was over triple that amount this time last month.

A less significant part of that can be explained by Gambit‘s dominance, which has seen them max out in all three sub-categories of the ranking after they secured two more titles and a runners-up finish in June, causing everyone else to be scaled down. However, the more important factor comes down to none of the teams being able to deliver big results and stand out from the crowd, which they will have another chance to do at IEM Cologne.

All ten teams in question — Virtus.pro, mousesports, Astralis, Vitality, BIG, FURIA, Complexity, OG, Spirit, and Liquid — will be in action in Germany this week when we finally see CS:GO back on LAN and have a chance to make huge waves come the next monthly update, or at least separate themselves from the pack should they make it far at the prestigious tournament.

Only 72 points separate Liquid and Virtus.pro ten places apart

ENCE’s international core reaches new heights

A few bigger shifts happened on the lower end of the top 30, with ENCE making big strides as one of the most notable, jumping from 28th to 20th place over this past month on the back of continued progress with their new international core around Marco “⁠Snappi⁠” Pfeiffer. The Finnish organization is now edging closer to their former level, re-entering the top 20 once again for the first time since October, when they still boasted their local lineup.

Snappi & co. struggled for consistency in their early days, going from beating a couple of top teams at ESL Pro League to losing to inferior opposition in their next outing, but it has been a much better look for them in recent times as the European combine has seemingly gained some much-needed stability. With Olek “⁠hades⁠” Miskiewicz now a permanent member of the team, having first stepped in as a temporary replacement for Aleksi “⁠allu⁠” Jalli, ENCE had a great month in June, winning ten in twelve matches (22-7 in maps) and claiming their second international title at Funspark ULTI European playoffs.

They will have to wait until after the break to make their mark against top opposition again after picking up wins against mousesports and NIP in the Gamers Without Borders event (which was not accounted for in the ranking as a charity tournament), but there is plenty to be hopeful about when it comes to ENCE already as they’re headed towards their next big opportunity to soar at ESL Pro League Season 14.

NIP break into top five for the first time with this core

NIP have been going on an upwards trajectory since adding star AWPer Nicolai “⁠device⁠” Reedtz to the team. The Swedes entered the top 10 last month after coming second at Flashpoint 3 with Erik “⁠ztr⁠” Gustafsson, and have continued to climb with the addition of another academy player, Linus “⁠LNZ⁠” Holtäng, taking over the spot left open by the aforementioned youngster.

Björn “⁠THREAT⁠” Pers‘s men weren’t able to equal their Flashpoint 3 grand final showing during the month of June, but they were able to take four scalps at IEM Summer and BLAST Premier Spring Final, where they incurred as many losses. The first of the two events started off with a best-of-one loss to OG, but was followed by a win against fnatic and a massive victory against Heroic, before elimination in 7-8th place came at the hands of Virtus.pro.

NIP will hope to keep up consistency as they return to a LAN environment

NIP followed a similar pattern at BLAST Premier Spring Final, where an initial 0-2 loss to Complexity was followed by two straight victories, against Evil Geniuses and BIG, before they were finally edged out by G2 in a three-map overtime thriller in the lower bracket final, putting them out in fourth place.

The team led by Hampus “⁠hampus⁠” Poser will strive to keep making strides among the world’s best and cement their top-five place in the ranking at IEM Cologne, where they are one of the favored sides to make the main event as they are slated to face LDLC in their opening Play-In match.

EG continue to climb and sit in close proximity of top 20

Evil Geniuses showed a glimpse of hope at the beginning of June by winning two IEM Summer group stage matches to make the playoffs, as the North American squad had previously dropped all the way down to No.38 in the world ranking following several abysmal months of last-place finishes and losses to teams beneath them in the rankings.

The IEM Summer run came right after parting ways with coach Wilton “⁠zews⁠” Prado, relieving some pressure on a team with nothing to lose, and they took out Spirit in the best-of-one opener before securing an important win against Heroic. Peter “⁠stanislaw⁠” Jarguz and company then lost to OG and Gambit to end in 5-6th place, making it their first time successfully surviving a group stage since BLAST Premier Spring Groups in February.

daps has been brought on to help Evil Geniuses find their way back to the top

Evil Geniuses weren’t able to follow up their IEM Summer feat at BLAST Premier Spring Final, where they had to rematch Gambit right off the bat and then ran into an in-form NIP, unable to score a map in either series, but despite the two losses their earlier victories put the team back on a path they can build on with the addition of Damian “⁠daps⁠” Steele in the coaching position. Their first hurdle on the way to the IEM Cologne main event via the play-in is another struggling team hoping to rise in the rankings following a cold period, FaZe, who sit in 36th place, not far from where Evil Geniuses themselves were a month ago.

Astralis on the verge of top 10 exit as contract expiration dates near

Astralis haven’t been able to make it deep into a tournament since the beginning of the year, and several group stage and quarter-final exits haven’t helped the Danes hold on to their place in the top spots of the rankings, where they had been sitting for the larger part of the past four-and-a-half years. Now in eighth place, the Danes are at their lowest since March 2018, without counting the stint in 2020 when the roster underwent multiple changes as Lukas “⁠gla1ve⁠” Rossander and Andreas “⁠Xyp9x⁠” Højsleth took leaves of absence and the organization scrambled to find replacements.

zonic’s days in Astralis could be numbered

device‘s departure didn’t help in the Danish squad’s quest to make deep runs at tournaments, going out in 5-6th place at DreamHack Masters Spring and in sixth place at Flashpoint 3. They then only attended IEM Summer in June, tallying a single victory against Extra Salt after a best-of-one loss to FunPlus Phoenix before being eliminated by Gambit in 9-12th place.

Astralis‘ contracts are all set to expire by the end of the year with exception of Lucas “⁠Bubzkji⁠” Andersen, and the four longstanding Astralis players are free to pursue different opportunities if they so choose. Danny “⁠zonic⁠” Sørensen‘s days in the team could also be coming to an end according to a recent report, casting a shadow over the most important date on the calendar in over a year, Counter-Strike‘s return to LAN at IEM Cologne, where the Danes are waiting in the main event’s group stage shrouded by uncertainty.

Lucas Aznar Miles contributed to this story

PlatoAi. Web3 Reimagined. Data Intelligence Amplified.

Click here to access.

Source: https://www.hltv.org/news/32004/team-ranking-june-2021